The Tree
by Fother Mucker
Summary: Rey wants nothing to do with Kylo's sexual frustration. However, he finds a way to take care of the problem through horrible means whether Rey will help or not. This story probably does not go how you expect it will.
1. Chapter 1

**I regret nothing.**

The sound of blood pounding in her head filled Rey's ears while she ran as fast as she could. Her heart hammered in her chest. Had she not been gifted with such a quick stride, she knew she would have already been done for.

"Please, stop running away from me!" she heard her pursuer's desperate cries from behind her. She had to thank the cruel, sociopathic god who created the universe for making Kylo slow enough to outrun. She shuddered at the thought of what would happen to her when she ran out of energy and had to eventually stop.

"Fuck off!" was her blunt response. The muscles in Rey's legs were beginning to burn, an unpleasant sensation that was made worse by the warm, dry air. She needed to fall back on her old survival instincts to get out of this disaster that she would never recover from if Kylo got his horny hands on her. Dodging a rock in the tall grass, she started to scan her surroundings to see if she could somehow take advantage of the environment. She saw a few tall, leafy trees straight ahead in the distance but wasn't sure whether she'd even last long enough to reach them.

"But I need this right now," the dark sider replied, his voice starved and rough. Rey balled her hands into her fists and ignored her body's insistence that she slow down to rest. If she so much as paused for a millisecond just long enough to blink, she was going to get something worse than murdered. That's right, she was going to get raped hard and fast in the middle of an open field on some planet that she was reluctant to go to in the first place. She had a feeling that she wouldn't find any kyber crystals to replace her broken one here. Until she found a new crystal to construct a lightsaber with, she was unarmed and fighting was not really a viable option given those circumstances. Fleeing was her only shot at escape.

Not wasting a single precious breath on a follow-up retort, Rey once more defied the limits of her physical form by picking up speed. She locked her eyes on one particular tree with just the right proportions that she might be able to scale it with enough time to spare to evade a very non-consensual interaction with the aroused enemy. If she messed this up, she wouldn't be a virgin for much longer.

Drawing on the climbing skills she had acquired from years of navigating through giant shipwrecks on Jakku, the force user worked her way up the scratchy trunk of the tree and pulled herself higher into the green foliage by grabbing onto its branches. This wonderful plant would be her salvation, Rey thought to herself. She sat on the highest, thickest part of the tree that she trusted to support her weight and let out a sigh of relief. Glancing down, she was relieved her hypothesis- that Kylo wouldn't be able to follow- her was correct. She probably got more amusement out of watching his failed attempts at climbing than she should have, although she needed a good laugh to snap her brain out of its "I'm going to die any moment now" mode.

This was also the first opportunity she had to get a good look at Kylo, seeing how he had showed up out of nowhere to ruin her day and she had no time to look over her shoulder whilst running. He was absolutely consumed by an animalistic need to impregnate the closest living thing, evident in the way strands of hair clung to his sweaty forehead and his pupils dilated to the point where his eyes were completely black. He clawed at the bark with greedy fingers and a lustful, unblinking stare that wouldn't stray from the object of his desire.

"How can you do this to me?" he screamed, beating a fist against the unyielding wooden barrier that prevented him from fulfilling his sole purpose in life. Hungry for any type of intimacy from any possible source, Kylo pressed the front of his body against the tree's hard trunk and grinded his pelvis against it as he stared up. The arid breeze caressed the leaves on every branch, as well as the single loose wisp of hair in front of Rey's left ear. Both of her legs, smooth and beautifully sculpted, dangled over the edge of the thick branch she was sitting on, and her arms were wrapped around the tree in a way that the dark sider wished they would wrap around him. Seeing her so far out of his reach and yet so tantalizingly sexy made his throbbing nether regions hurt with a need that he couldn't meet. He gasped and suppressed a moan. If he didn't resolve this somehow, Kylo was sure he would die by testicular rupture.

"It's not my fault you're so disgusting," Rey replied with a look of utter loathing. She tightened her embrace of the tree in spite of the stinging cuts the unkind texture of the bark gave her. There was really no telling how long she'd have to stay up there before it was safe enough to climb back down and make a hasty retreat to her ship. One of Ren's defining traits was his inability to take "no" for an answer and he would probably wait at the base of the tree until one or both of them was dead. Rey was ready to accept that tree as her final resting place. Her life was pretty bad the way it was and she supposed it was fitting for her death to be just as awkward and horrible.

Much to her confused alarm, Kylo briefly stepped away from the tree to reach for his belt. Sure, she was too far away for him to properly sexually assault her, but the gesture still unnerved her greatly.

Fortunately all he did was unclip a long, dark cylindrical object from within the folds of his black robes. Unfortunately, it was his lightsaber and he was aiming the emitter at the tree's trunk with a determined look on his flushed face. Oh no. Rey leaned to the side to get a better look at what he was doing. In her panic, it hadn't even occurred to her that Kylo might try to cut the tree down with her in it.

"Hey, what the fuck are you doing?" she called out, sporting a very concerned frown on her face.

Kylo glanced up at her. His lips were set into a perverse pout, and his fingers stroked the hilt of his lightsaber before they found the ingnition button.

"I will have sex today, whether you're coming down or not," he murmured cryptically. The crackling, red blade accompanied by the two shorter ones shot forth from the emitter with an ominous hum. The main long blade pierced a sizable but not damaging hole in the sturdy structure of the girthy tree trunk. With tremendous precision, Kylo slid the tip back and forth to burn his way deeply enough into the core that it could eventually accommodate his length.

Rey didn't understand what his words meant. Who else could Kylo possibly defile in this largely uninhabited region of the planet, at this exact time? And she couldn't see how carving a hole in the tree was meant to help him get laid. However, she figured she would get an answer to all of her questions if she just continued watching. So far the enemy was a comfortable twenty or so feet away from her and he wasn't doing anything that immediately threatened her safety. Perhaps observing his behavior would at least provide some insight into his disturbed mind, if nothing else.

Gritting his teeth, Kylo dropped the lightsaber to the grassy ground after deactivating it. Then, he snaked a hand under all of the heavy layers of his clothes to unzip his pants before tugging them down. Once his erection was freed, he grasped it with a steady hand and began to fuck his clenched fist, preparing his own virgin body for the foreign sensation of having sex. When he masturbated with gloves on, it felt like someone else was doing it and added a new layer of pleasure to the activity.

Rey silently watched this lewd act unfold from the safety of the tree's highest branch, thankful that she was too far away to see the intricate details of what her enemy's dick looked like. However, it appeared to be rather small and undesirable from her angle.

"You're retarded," she finally said, shaking her head in a mix of pity and disgust. But hearing Rey insult him aroused Kylo even more. Now that his hand was no longer good enough to appease the twitching of his hardened member, he turned his body to face the tree trunk and carefully lined the tip of his manhood up with the small, circular hole he had cut into the wood. Because he was enslaved by his virile instinct to breed as quickly as possible, he involuntarily thrusted his hips forward to introduce his cock to the inviting tunnel in the tree's voluptuous form. The tight, rigid hole was still hot, having just been burned into existence by a plasma blade. While the makeshift tree cunt would never produce its own natural lubricant, Ren silently acknowledged that this was the best he could do for now. As he slowly eased his entire length into the depths of the beautiful tree he was raping, he made direct eye contact with the equally attractive female specimen who sat among the branches.

"In my dreams, my first time was always with you," he said as his scrotum made delicate contact with the scratchy bark.

"Well," Rey raised her eyebrows at the sight of the First Order's Supreme Leader being balls deep in a plant. She wished she had brought a recording device with her; this would make for a thrilling nature documentary. "... in my dreams, my first time was always with Poe Dameron. On top of your dead body. But it doesn't mean our future will be anything like that, as nice as that would be." She briefly considered the discomfort she felt as the tree's splinters dug into the skin of her arms and legs, then cringed at the thought of what it would be like to rub one's unclothed genitals against the same surface.

But even then, the look on Kylo's face was devoid of any pain and instead expressed tremendous pleasure. The tip of his deviant tongue darted out to run across his bottom lip, moistening the pink flesh. With a shaky hand, he pushed the hair away from his face so it wouldn't get in his eyes whilst he was aggressively fucking the tree. His whole body was crying for a release from the burden that he had carried for far longer than any man should have to carry it. Uttering a low, tortured moan, he properly aligned his body for the first thrust.

The warm dry hole hugged his penis tightly, constricting and applying pressure in all of the right places. He had never made love to a real woman before but he could only imagine that this magical experience was similar enough to the actual thing. Sucking in a sharp breath, Kylo ignored the way the sharp edges of the entrance scraped against his shaft and focused on getting in deep enough to touch the end of the tunnel with his sensitive tip. The coarse ashes, which were a byproduct of the burned wood, were also burrowing their way into his urethra due to the force of his pelvis incessantly slamming against the sturdy trunk. But the dark sider didn't care. The hot, sticky load that he would soon secrete would make quick work of anything that wasn't supposed to be up there.

He paused to roll the waistband of his pants down mid-thigh because they kept riding up and his dick was getting lost amongst the folds of thick, black material. Kylo took note of the bleeding scrapes along his entire member and inwardly lamented the decision to not bring a condom. He sighed. Oh well. Maybe the blood would make a decent substitute for lube.

Although she found this to be a most uncomfortable situation to be stuck in, Rey weighed all of the other possibilities and decided that watching Kylo desecrate a tree was much better than being the one who gets raped in that scenario. She gave the tree a comforting pat in spite of its rough exterior before curiously glancing back down. As her eyes happened upon the brutalized cock of the Supreme Leader, the novice Jedi began to wonder why the force had arranged for them to have this bizarre encounter.

Her expectation was that Ren would give up and just finish it off with his hand, but the psychotic bastard defied all common sense. With a growl, he slapped the tree with his dick before penetrating it again to go for round two.

"It's not over yet, you little skank," he snapped and punched it so hard that the noise reverberated from its roots to its leaves and startled Rey. The glove on his hand was the only thing sparing his knuckles from being mangled. "I am going to destroy your pussy." Wrapping his arms around the deciduous plant as if it would somehow escape if he didn't restrain it hard enough, Kylo began to furiously plow his way in and out of its durable orifice. He grunted and writhed, slamming his body against the innocent creature of god from which he derived his carnal satisfaction.

Approaching an awkward and sickening orgasm, he quickly pulled out and pressed his bruised and bloodied appendage against the tree so he could mark his first conquest with his masculine juices. Watching his own seed drip down the trunk and be absorbed by the dry soil at the tree's base brought such immense gratification to the master of the Knights of Ren and overwhelmed his senses to the point that he collapsed onto a bed of tall grass, flattening it under his hefty weight. He let out a shaky sigh and basked in the breathtaking sensation of having fucked another living thing until he literally bled. Kylo could swear he heard a choir of angels singing from the heavens, it was that good.

"What the fuck," Rey shouted at last, staring at the puddle of cum beside the tree's roots before reluctantly looking over at Kylo's inert form. Unfortunately the experience of fucking a plant hadn't quite killed him; she could still make out the rhythmic, slow rise and fall of his chest and every so often his eyelashes would flutter in pure unadulterated bliss. It probably wasn't safe enough for her to climb back down and make a dash to her parked ship, not with a tree rapist lying a mere five feet away from where she'd inevitably have to hit the ground.

Rey didn't keep track of the time that passed while she remained in that tree, but eventually Kylo Ren did wake up from his tree sex-induced coma and surprisingly left without harassing her too much. All he said to her was that he couldn't afford to wait for her any longer and needed immediate medical attention to prevent his dick from getting infected and possibly falling off. The second his ship ascended too far into the sky for her to see it, she practically lept out of the tree and ran to the safety of her own spacecraft for a hasty escape.

She never told any of her Resistance allies about the things she saw on that planet on that fateful day, hoping that the ordeal would be erased from her mind if she tried hard enough to reject it as a real thing that truly happened.

* * *

Rey returned to that very planet about two years after the incident for completely unrelated reasons. But... Something was drawing her back to that unholy field of debauchery where that tree was rooted in the tall grass, likely in the same spot where she had abandoned it. Something was tugging on her sleeve through the force, summoning her to the tree that had simultaneously provided her with a place of refuge and pleasured her worst nemesis.

The Millennium Falcon roughly touched down in the same area where she had parked her throwaway ship during her first time going to that planet. This time, Rey was fortunate enough to have a functioning lightsaber as well as a few colleagues who were also assigned to the same mission as she. However, neither one of them could prod an explanation out of the force user when she took a detour to an uninhabited region of the planet.

As she stepped down the ramp and into the yellow grass that brushed by her knees, Rey was overwhelmed by a sense of unnerving and stomach-churning nostalgia.

"Okay, you realize you'll eventually have to tell us what the hell we're doing going off course from the original plan like this?" Finn cut through the stifling atmosphere and joined her on the dry ground. Rose followed after him with great trepidation, looking to the ex-stormtrooper as the only solid source of logic that had come along on the mission.

The way Rey stood still and stared into the open space with contracted pupils as if she were witnessing some horror designed only for her eyes was understandably frustrating for the two force null individuals who didn't know about the gruesome backstory behind the field they found themselves in. The loose, grey strips of fabric she wore draped over her shoulders would have been fluttering in the breeze had they not been traded in for a darker jacket. That was another thing Finn had noticed; ever since she returned from this planet those two years ago with splinters embedded in her arms and legs, Rey had taken to wearing darker colors and having odd episodes akin to those an individual suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder might have.

He swallowed and looked over Rey's shoulder to see if there was anything in the direction she was staring at. Maybe she had had some horrible experience here and wanted to rectify it or something...?

"Rey, why are we here?" Finn reiterated his initial question to approach the unknown circumstances with more tact. At last, his words were met with a response.

Rey turned her head to give him and Rose a sideways glance before starting to walk towards a distant group of trees.

"It's... rather difficult to explain without showing you," she finally spoke. Finn and Rose quickly caught up with her, anxious for any sort of reasoning behind the Jedi's peculiar behavior. Finn in particular needed to know what had changed one of his very first and closest friends.

The short walk led them to one specific tree, the biggest one in that clearing. When Rey stopped a good twenty feet away from the tree, they took it as a cue to stop as well. The three of them stood in awkward silence, although most of the awkwardness was radiating from the ex-stormtrooper and his mechanic friend. Rey, on the other hand, gave off an air of knowing something that no one else did.

"I need you both to just wait right here and not come any closer," she warned and threw them a stern look. Then she began to cautiously slink towards the tree as if it were a timid creature that could be easily frightened. Finn watched on in confused awe at the sight of Rey placing a firm hand on the bark, only interrupted when Rose gently nudged his arm.

"What is she doing? Is this some kind of... Jedi ritual or something?" the shorter woman whispered curiously. They both looked back from each other to Rey, where they now saw her crouching behind the tree with her arms outstretched and doing something that created a scratchy rustling sound.

"I don't know any more than you do," Finn replied quietly.

While Finn and Rose speculated in hushed voices and observed from a distance, the force user examined the tree's physical condition with great care. There was a very morbid reason for the pull she had felt to it, and she had to get to the bottom of this phenomenon if she ever wanted a proper night's sleep. If this had anything to do with what Kylo Ren had done... Rey felt so ill as she remembered the events of that day and had to fight really hard to keep her breakfast from coming back up.

The circular hole in the trunk was still there just like she expected it would be, pulsating with a sensual, hot energy. Frowning, Rey picked up a branch from the ground beside her and decided to investigate the opening without having to use her bare hands. She held her breath and slowly slid the pointed tip of the branch into the hole. She didn't know what to expect, but she was bound to discover something terrible if it was profound enough to lead her back to this place.

She kept pushing until the tip of the stick hit something spongey and flexible. Whatever it was, it grabbed onto the stick and began to tug. Rey reflexively yanked the stick back out of the wooden fleshlight and moved to the side, giving the tree a questioning stare.

Suddenly, the hole stretched and dilated, before dripping a viscous yellow slime from its insides. Rey, paralyzed by disgust and shock, stared at the small infant being birthed out of the treegina. It hit the soil between the roots, emitting a gross, wet slap as it did so. Upon overcoming the feeling of utter repulsion, the ex-scavenger leaned over the newborn and picked it up against her better judgment. Its mole speckled skin was moist and clammy to the touch, but the little patches of moss and leaves on its back were coarse and dry. A shiver crawled up Rey's spine.

The looks on Finn and Rose's faces when she stepped out from behind the tree with the infant were priceless. The asian woman clamped a hand over her mouth and the dark skinned man let out a gasp of horror.

"What the fuck is that?!" Finn managed to scream, taking a single step back as Rey came closer. However, it was quite clear as day what that was to anyone who laid eyes on it: a half tree, half boy. The many short twigs sprouting from its scalp with their budding leaves, along with the bark on its tender bottom were a dead giveaway of its unconventional heritage.

"This," Rey began with a revolted pause, "is Kylo Ren's son."

 **Originally this was going to be a oneshot type thing, but then it sort of got out of my control and now I feel like I might need to wrap it up with a follow-up chapter... The adventures of tree boi could be a good spin-off series.**


	2. Chapter 2

**School sucks walrus monster tit and I am drowning in work, hence why I haven't posted any stories or updated anything in a while. This chapter won't be as good as the first one but whatever.**

Rey anticipated a more volatile reaction from them, so she was pleasantly surprised by Finn and Rose's abilities to maintain some composure. They were able to hold back their questions until the bastard infant was relocated to a pile of old blankets on the dejarik table aboard the Millennium Falcon. It twisted and contorted its soft, slimy body while staring at the first people it encountered since its introduction to the outside world. Its dark round eyes, ill and unhinged like its father's, rolled around as it seemingly took in its new surroundings.

"How?" Finn asked, his brow set in a profoundly troubled frown.

"How what?" Rey faced him at last as she stepped away to remove herself from the tree child's line of sight. It began to whine and eke out a few muffled sobs when she distanced herself from it, stoking her fear that it might already have grown attached to her. Another thing it appeared to have in common with its father was how quickly it latched onto her like a malignant, painful tumor.

"How the fuck is that Kylo Ren's son, is probably what Finn means," Rose interjected. She pointed at the plant-like attributes the infant had on its backside to emphasize her point.

Rey sighed and took a seat by the nearest viewport. Vivid images of Kylo having his way with a tree pierced through the exhausted haze clouding her mind and poisoned her train of thought. She bit down on the inside of her cheek until she tasted blood, unsure if she could recount the lore behind the newborn's existence without getting sick.

"Well, you know that this isn't my first time on this planet," she began and twiddled her thumbs to distract herself from the depravity of the topic at hand.

"Yeah, you came here because you heard there were some caves where you could find crystals to power a new lightsaber after the old one was broken," Finn nodded with remembrance. He sat across from her, studying her bloodless and stony face with concern. "And you came back empty handed."

"That's because I never actually found any caves in the first place," Rey continued with a cringe, looking like she had tasted the most sour fruit in existence.

"What? Why not?" Finn was shocked. He had previously taken Rey's word for it when she claimed she simply couldn't find what she was looking for. In hindsight, he should have been more suspicious when she returned from her trip many days too early.

"Because two days after my arrival, _he_ showed up." No elaboration regarding who it was that showed up was needed. The force user shifted uncomfortably before continuing. "I'm not sure how he tracked me down. I probably couldn't tell he was coming because I was doing my absolute best to block him off in the force so he wouldn't try to communicate with me, and completely blinded myself to his force signature altogether." Rey looked up to see confusion written all over her two colleagues' faces as they attempted to understand the force and its complex mechanisms, but decided to move onto the meaty part of the whole story. "He chased me, as I expected him to do. But... I noticed something was off." She took in a sharp breath and thought back to that day, using the vile memories in her storytelling process.

* * *

By the time Rey had finished describing every last graphic detail of what she ended up bearing witness to, Finn's face had twisted into an expression of abject horror and Rose actually vomited all over the floor. Every last bit of it, particularly the entire part where the tree was used for sexual purposes, had the potential to make the most hardened war veteran in the galaxy nauseous. The soft vocalizations of the infant in the room next door went unheard against the horrific event being painted by Rey's words.

"That's the worst thing I've heard in my entire life," Finn managed to choke out once the incredibly revolting retelling was over. He ignored the puddle of vomit three feet away from his own shoes, worried that he would end up in the same situation as Rose very soon if he saw her puke. Judging by his wounded, traumatized look, Finn would forever carry the psychological scar that the repugnant story had left on his unwilling virgin soul.

"Is there a mop or any disinfectant on this ship?" Rose asked sheepishly in reference to the half-digested food that was on the floor in front of her. She quietly left the room in search of these cleaning supplies, leaving Rey alone with Finn. This unfortunate incident had the sole benefit of providing the force user and the defected stormtrooper with an opportunity to talk one-on-one for the first time in a while.

Rey stood from her sitting position and sighed. She slowly made her way towards the infant, which was conceived outside of wedlock as well as the boundaries of decency, and fixed her empty eyes onto its round face. Its pasty, dotted skin was taking on a yellowish green hue, and she couldn't tell if this was a sign of disease or just the manifestation of its tree heritage. What did a baby with a tree for a mother sustain itself off of, if not milk? Would it gain energy through photosynthesis or would it eat like its human father? Too many questions, not a single answer in sight.

"What happens now, then?" Finn inquired. He stepped up to get his own good look at the center of attention, patiently waiting for a response. He shuddered at the idea of what might happen if Kylo Ren ever discovered the existence of the infant.

"If I'm being completely and brutally honest with myself," the young Jedi started carefully, "I don't know." She tucked away the strand of hair that had escaped the buns on the back of her head, then set her lips into a thin line. She silently judged the way the sap-like mucus on the baby's delicate skin stained the old blankets it was wrapped in.

Normally he would have shot back a jest about how Jedi are supposed to be wise and omniscient, but Finn was rendered too speechless by the current circumstances to poke fun at anything so dire. All he could do was join his friend in trying to conjure up a plan on how they'd deal with the unexpected life-form that they would inevitably have to bring back to the Resistance.

"Man, I can't see any situation where Poe would be okay with this," he said quietly after a minute of contemplation. The brown leather jacket, which the very man in question had given to him several years ago, did little to stop the chill traveling up his back.

"Which part do you reckon he will have the most trouble with, the human-tree hybrid part or the fact that it's Ren's biological offspring?" Rey asked with paranoia thinly disguised as genuine interest in her voice.

"Definitely that second thing," Finn retorted and shook his head. "Think about it this way, Rey: we have the next heir to the First Order's throne aboard the Millennium Falcon, sitting right in front of us. Pretty much everything could go wrong with this."

"Right," the female force user agreed, crossing her arms. "There is also a possibility that it might take after its father and start showing signs of force sensitivity, which would be a disaster if it got into the wrong hands. So the safest bet, unless it's one hundred percent confirmed to not have any special properties, would be for it to stay with the Resistance."

Finn didn't seem too fond of the idea if his body language was any indicator. But he gave a small nod, unable to think of a better alternative of his own.

When Rose returned with the right utilities to clean up the mess, they all sat quietly. There was the occasional giggle or whine of the baby in the background. Other than that, the air was empty and only the chirping of insects outside the ship could be heard.

Rey didn't know what to do now that this wrench had been thrown into her plans. She wanted to go on another extended trip to the unexplored edges of the galaxy in search of any ancient relics left behind by the first light force users, and eventually organize a new group of young force sensitives to share her limited knowledge with; the few Jedi texts that she had salvaged from the tree on Ahch-To were mostly unreadable, written in alien languages that even C-3PO struggled to translate, and Rey would need more information if she wanted to reconstruct a new order that was faithful to the teachings of the original Jedi. She had wanted to go on such a trip for quite a while, considering the heavy legacy that now rested upon her shoulders due to Luke Skywalker's untimely death. But she would have to postpone it if she ended up being the obligate guardian of this baby.

The young woman once more approached the restless offspring of her greatest enemy and looked deep into its dark, murky eyes. The corners of its toothless maw curled into a grin, then its tiny fists unfurled to reach up and attempt to grab at her charcoal jacket. She gently swatted the curious hand away, trying hard to mentally separate this defenseless creature from the awful perversion that had conceived it. Rey sighed as the infant boy rolled over onto his stomach and exposed his mossy back. She knew what needed to be done. She couldn't spend her own time and resources on raising a child that wasn't hers, not with her tremendous priorities. But maybe Finn and Rose would be able to do it.

"I'm sorry," she began quietly with her eyes transfixed on the sky beyond the viewport. Her fingers tightly gripped the edge of the tabletop on which the baby laid.

"Rey, what- what do you mean?" Finn asked. He stood up and walked over to stand a few feet away from her. "You have nothing to be sorry for. There was nothing you could've done to stop it from happening. If it wasn't the tree... it could've been you." He clenched his jaw and swallowed his anger at the mere consideration of something so evil happening to the woman who he had grown to admire as the sister he never had.

"You avoided being hurt by a murderous creep, and that's the only thing that matters," Rose added quickly, standing by Finn's side.

A short, miserable laugh escaped from Rey's throat. She shook her head.

"I'm not apologizing for anything that has already happened, but rather something that I'm about to do," she clarified upon turning her back to the infant and meeting the imploring stares that burned into her flesh. "I'm not staying at the new Resistance base for long when we arrive because I have to learn more about the teachings of the Jedi and find students to pass those teachings onto."

"Then... what will happen to Kylo Ren junior?" Rose asked with a puzzled inflection. "I don't want to doubt Poe's generosity and goodwill, but he might not extend them to the freak son of the Resistance's most hated enemy." Finn found the asian woman's wording to be rather harsh(as cruel and monstrous as the baby's father was, he didn't think it deserved to pay for something that was out of its control), but he recognized the solid point she was making. While Poe was immensely understanding and protective when it came to those he loved, he was wrathful and merciless when it came to anyone who threatened those loved ones. Even after learning about Kylo's relation to the late General Organa, Poe still held onto his burning hatred for the current Supreme Leader of the First Order. And no one could blame him, really. The First Order had killed more people after the end of Snoke's reign than they ever had before.

"He might want it dead, Rey," Finn said. He looked at the infant again, watching the way it moved around and behaved like a normal baby by any other set of parents. Surely it deserved a chance at having a decent life without its father's toxic influence over its head. And if there was anyone who could argue for the baby's survival and convince Poe to let it stay with the Resistance, it was the last student of Luke Skywalker. If Rey wouldn't do it... Who could?

"And that's why I am thankful to have great friends such as yourselves," Rey replied before pausing briefly. "Finn, you have a relationship with Poe more personal and deep than I do. Your word likely has more weight than mine to him, which is why I need you to do most of the talking." Handling it in a way that didn't require her to directly touch its plump and moist skin, she wrapped the infant up in the old blanket and started to walk towards Rose. The black-haired woman's face, churning into a cocktail of confusion and disgust, was the only reaction that would be appropriate for a person in her position.

Without much warning, Rey deposited the mewling life-form into Rose's hesitant arms and walked away to return to her place by the viewport.

"What- Oh no," Rose uttered in alarmed realization after a few seconds of thought. She understood what this was, as did Finn.

"Rey, you can't be fucking serious right now!" the man shouted in disbelief. "You can't just shove this problem into our hands and jump ship during a time when the Resistance needs you the most! You can't run off to go on your own secret mission while the war is at its worst point. Not now. The Jedi school can wait." The longer it took for Rey to admit that he was right and she wasn't going to leave them like this, the higher Finn's blood pressure rose.

"I know you two will make such great parents," Rey continued with a forced grin, ignoring their protests. "For the past few years, you've been by each other's sides through the Resistance's failures and victories. You show no selfish motives, only a drive to protect everything you care for." The corners of her mouth wavered slightly as she seemed to battle a troubling thought that crossed her already crowded mind. "I can't say the same for myself, though. I've been selfish and ignoring the suffering of others so many times since discovering my powers."

"No," Finn denied. A look of anger and worry took hold of his typically gentle features. "You're not thinking right. You are the furthest thing from selfish, and you can't leave us. Not with this," he pointed at the baby in Rose's arms. "We're gonna need your help and knowledge. What if it starts to use the force, like you told me it might?"

"I'm not completely abandoning the new family I found with you guys," Rey snapped in frustration before shooting an impatient glare at him. "You should know better than to assume that I would vanish without giving you a way to reach out to me in case of an emergency." The suggestion that she would even consider doing such a thing touched a nerve for the former scavenger, who had been abandoned herself with no way of knowing what had happened to the people who were supposed to raise her. "Obviously if any... _odd_ things start happening, either you or Rose will have to contact me through a comlink or some other form of long-distance communication."

"But- what if there is no record of tree-human hybrids and what they need to survive?" Rose stammered, tilting her head to the side after the baby grabbed one of the longer locks of her bangs. "We don't know what it eats or what its nutritional needs are. It might die even if Poe doesn't take offense to its existence."

"And my staying or leaving wouldn't change that, because I know as much about its needs as you do," Rey replied. She turned on her heel and began making her way to the cockpit, then looked back at Finn. "Usually, two people are needed to pilot this ship." It was a clear request for him to be her copilot for the ride back to the main Resistance stronghold, as well as an insistence that the argument be resumed at a later time. Finn glanced to the side for reassurance from Rose that she could handle their unexpected passenger on her own, and received a mouthed "I've got this" from her.

He didn't spare a single word or look at Rey despite being seated by her side at the Falcon's control panel. He wasn't even entirely angry with her; his silence could only be attributed to the shock that he had experienced in the narrow window of time, from the arrival on the grassy planet to the moment they entered hyperspace for the third time that day. A quiet exhale escaped Finn's lungs. There was quite a rough week ahead for them all.

* * *

Rey was the first to walk down the ramp upon the Millennium Falcon's touchdown near the Resistance base, which clamored with many people who were gathered outside to welcome the trio back from their mission. Finn followed her with a look of uncertainty to contrast against the stoic, cool mask that Rey could slip on seemingly effortlessly. He knew that the reception to the newborn son of Kylo Ren would be hostile, and Rose might need some backup as the unfortunate soul who had been tasked with ferrying the newborn into the base.

The crowd of Resistance soldiers parted to allow the passage of their new general, who eagerly made his way towards the freighter and his three companions. His dark, wavy hair and warm brown eyes still remained glossy with passion and courage in the face of the many challenges that weighed on his shoulders. He gave them a relieved grin as he closed the gap and took Rey into a quick embrace before doing the same to Finn.

"Any luck convincing the people in those star systems to share some of their military resources with us?" Poe asked him in a slightly hushed voice.

"Uh, yeah, that went surprisingly well," Finn replied distantly. He had almost forgotten all about the main purpose of the mission they had been sent on, with the more troubling matters that he now found himself faced with. He should have felt some joy after scoring that minor yet useful success for the Resistance but was unable to take his mind off of the newest burden that was placed upon his and Rose's shoulders. "But there's something we- the four of us- have to discuss. Alone. Is the conference room free right now?" The sudden urgency and worry in Finn's tone came as a surprise to Poe.

"Is- does this have anything to do with the First Order's strange behaviors?" he asked sharply. "Their Supreme Leader hasn't made a single appearance, public or on the battlefields. Their cruisers are also starting to spread out into the Unknown Regions, almost like they're searching for something. Some of my strategists have speculated that the enemy might be planning something huge, maybe even constructing a new weapon of mass destruction."

"Oh no, General," Rose piped up with an assertive shake of her head. "This problem is on a much... smaller scale." Her contribution to the conversation drew Poe's attention to the bundled blanket in her arms. He stopped and stared at its subtle movements, then frowned as the bundle emitted a soft cry.

"Why did you return with a baby?" the man calmly spoke to his friend.

"We can't explain here," Finn spoke before glancing over his shoulder at the group of people, who were now swarming around Rey and fighting for a chance to talk to what very well may be the last Jedi. Well, so much for the "four" of them talking this out. "Let's just go somewhere private while everyone else is distracted." On one hand, it would have been very useful to bring Rey along so she could help explain some of the intricacies of the situation, but it didn't seem like ripping her away from the throng of admiring Resistance soldiers was appropriate.

"She sure does seem like she needed that distraction herself," Poe commented as he started to lead them down the brightly lit corridors within the base. "What's up with Rey, anyways? It seems like she's always miserable lately, even more so now. I just saw her face and she looked like she went to hell and back."

"Believe me, it will start to make more sense once we tell you the whole story," the ex-stormtrooper promised. Repeatedly, he told himself that he had no reason to be nervous about presenting Kylo Ren's tree baby to his close friend, who was the general of the Resistance. Who loathed anything pertaining to the First Order. Finn dried his sweaty palms off on his thighs and met Rose's dark brown eyes. It was up to them to decide the newborn's fate.

As they entered the conference room, the black-haired mechanic carefully settled the blanket and its writhing contents onto the big table which high-ranking Resistance members would often gather around to coordinate plans with the guidance of the general. She placed it far away from the edge to decrease any odds that the baby might roll off of the table while they were heatedly debating.

"I guess it would be fair for me to start by asking whose baby that is," Poe broke the ice humorously after noticing the various peculiar attributes of the infant. It poked its head out from under a corner of the brown fabric and exposed the leafy sprouts on its scalp, yawning and squinting against the bright overhead lights. "Judging by your character, Finn, I'll bet he's an orphan you took in out of the kindness of that big heart of yours. Although I don't think he's a native species to any of the planets I sent you to..." he pondered out loud with a thoughtful frown and a hand stroking his stubbled chin.

"No, it's-" Finn started awkwardly, drumming his fingers against the table while trying to find the proper words. "I have no idea how it's physically possible, but this baby has a human for a father and a tree for a mother."

"You're absolutely certain that it's a boy?" Rose asked. She leaned forward to further inspect the infant to confirm that he was, in fact, male. Although it had previously been referred to as a "son" in passing, it had also been called an "it" many times and this partially confused her.

Poe said nothing and only stood in stunned silence. He thought it wasn't possible for a man to impregnate a plant, yet his closest and most reliable friend was telling him that it was. His eyes refocused on the infant.

The infant was now completely uncovered, having maneuvered his way out of the cloth he had been wrapped in. The bark on his tender posterior crinkled as he rolled over onto his stomach and flexed his rump, and his small hands eagerly sought out the cold surface of the tabletop. He let out a short giggle, tilting his round head to look up at his audience. A tree boy, that's what Poe immediately knew he was.

"Okay," the man responded and crossed his arms before taking a step closer to the baby and eyeing it with a thoughtful expression. He nodded slightly, a gesture that Finn interpreted as an acceptance of this information. "I can deal with that. Weird, but I guess I've seen weirder examples of cross-breeding." Then he asked the dreaded question that no one was excited to answer. "So who's the father?"

Finn and Rose exchanged apprehensive looks, silently arguing over which one of them would have to say it. Eventually, the young woman was the one to speak up.

"According to Rey, Kylo Ren is the father."

Poe's casual demeanor dropped and an unnerving darkness flashed in his eyes. His brows furrowed and he clenched his jaw, locking his angry gaze onto the baby who was entirely oblivious to the sudden tension between the adults in the room. Upon releasing the breath that he was holding onto, the general stepped away from the table and ran his fingers through his wavy dark locks of hair.

"I take back what I said," he spoke in a low, cold voice as he faced the wall. "There isn't a single example of cross-breeding in this galaxy more sickening and disgusting than this." His refusal to say anything else worried Finn.

"Okay, that's understandable. But come on Poe, we have to figure out a way to... handle things without taking it out on this child," the former stormtrooper said as calmly as he could, holding his hands up in an attempt to prevent the other man from having any violent outbursts. Poe sharply turned back around and looked Finn dead in the eyes. His expression was that of a soldier who had witnessed some gruesome things on the battlefield.

"Yeah, people don't have any say in who their parents are. It's not his fault that his father is a nasty piece of shit, and we have to take him in like we would with any other child," Rose argued passionately as she watched the infant's joy melt away into fear. The raising of voices was a universal sign of disagreement and anger, and any creature could recognize this conflict whether it understood Galactic Basic or not.

"That thing is full of potential to spread evil across every star system when it gets bigger and stronger. So much more terrible potential than any other child in this galaxy!" Poe snapped over the sounds of the infant boy's whimpering. He took another step forward, meeting Finn's pained stare. "Let's imagine that it has the capability to cause damage on a massive scale like its father. Am I supposed to just endanger the lives of every member of the Resistance by allowing this ticking time bomb to share a living space with them? And when it eventually betrays us by hurting somebody, who do you think will be taking responsibility for its actions? Not Kylo Ren, that's for sure. It will be the people who gave it the opportunity to do it in the first place. Do you really want to be the one who has to take the blame for everything this little monster does? Do you want to raise Kylo Ren's bastard son for him, Finn?"

Finn slowly inhaled through his nose as he concentrated on maintaining his own cool, even though it was clearly a moot point trying to get Poe to do the same. He rubbed at his left temple uncomfortably.

"We've already considered that as a possibility, and Rey will help us handle it if he's strong with the force," was his concise response.

"Oh really? That's news to me, because she clearly isn't on board enough with this plan to actually come here and make a fucking case in your favor!" Poe snarled, which made both Finn and Rose take a step back. They shared a shocked look. The ace x-wing pilot had never displayed this much visceral anger and hatred for as long as the both of them had known him, and it seemed as though the events prior to the Battle of Crait as well as his later ascension to the role of Resistance general had matured him. For the past two years, he had always found a way to remain stable and level headed throughout the most dire circumstances. And yet there he was, grasping at threads of rationality that were slipping through the cracks. Poe put his hands on his hips and let out a sardonic chuckle. "It's an absolute, firm 'no', guys. This isn't happening. I am not giving up my people's precious resources for this... this _thing_."

Finn scoffed and walked over to the table, picking the baby up with his bare hands when no one else could.

"Finn, stop!" Rose exclaimed out of shock. "What if he has poison on his skin or something? We don't know what kind of tree it was."

"I dunno. I'm holding him now and he's not melting my clothes or flesh," Finn shot back. He held the baby securely close to his chest, allowing its sticky membranes to stain the cream colored shirt under his brown jacket. He surprised both Poe and Rose by leaving the conference room.

"Where the hell do you think you're going with that, huh?" Poe shouted after him from the doorway, glaring at the former stormtrooper's back while he walked away from them both.

"I'm going to get Rey and she'll make you listen to what I'm saying!" Finn hollered back without even throwing another glance back over his shoulder. The baby's warm body moved in rhythm with his every step as he made his way back to the place where he had last seen Rey.

* * *

The lights that usually brightened the freighter's interior were all turned off. The only source of light aboard the nearly empty ship was the amber glow of the lit deathstick Rey was balancing between her teeth as she made sure she had all of the weapons and ammunition she needed for her secret mission. She worked with haste, racing against the time it would take for her to be sucked into that debacle concerning the leafy hellspawn. It wouldn't take long for the rest of them to notice her sudden absence and start looking for her.

Finn was right on one thing, though. The reorganization of a Jedi order could wait a little while. There was something she still needed to take care of before going on her trip.

After she had carefully ensured that each blaster was equipped with a full cartridge of plasma and every blade had been sharpened to its fullest extent, Rey closed all of the metal drawers. But even the harsh slamming sounds produced by this action couldn't drown out the unyielding voices that screamed and echoed in her head. That had dominated every one of her thoughts since the dreadfully traumatic experience of watching that sick monster raping a plant. Her blood boiled whenever memories of Kylo Ren so much as surfaced to the forefront of her mind. Rey wanted nothing more than to squeeze every ounce of life from his disgusting body and beat his corpse into a broken, bloodied pulp. It was the only way she could silence the voices.

 _Kill him or kill yourself,_ the voices would whisper in a tone that suggested they would be sneering if they were attached to a face.

 _Maybe you should have just let him rape you instead,_ they would say on occasions where Rey was being consumed by flashbacks to the event. This often provoked her to break the closest inanimate objects nearby out of anger.

 _I wonder what color he is on the inside,_ was only one of countless unnerving and violent phrases that had crossed her mind as she had begun to plan on ridding the galaxy of Ren's presence once and for all.

Rey quietly lowered herself into the pilot's seat, shivering with anticipation and swallowing any traces of hesitance. She wouldn't succeed in conquering and destroying Ren if any weaknesses were going to stand in her way of executing the ultimate assassination.

"I am doing it," she hissed back at the cacophony of taunts her own damaged psyche kept bombarding her with. "I am doing my job." She had to function as both the pilot and the co-pilot, because this was something she had to do alone. Chewbacca had a good and generous heart but he would only hinder her plot to kill his late friend's son if she invited him to accompany her. Rey sighed as the Millennium Falcon's engines came to life and the ship began its ascent into the sky. Even after Ren had proven his lack of humanity and goodness so many times, the Wookiee still couldn't stop seeing him as Han's little boy. He was in denial of the brutal fact that that little boy had already gone through a most perverted metamorphosis which could not be undone.

"It all ends soon," Rey told herself as she put out the deathstick on her own thigh, paying no attention to the burn on her skin that would eventually become yet another scar. She was too occupied with the soothing fantasies of Kylo dying at her hands, which would mark the liberation of the galaxy's citizens as well as the return of the sweet sanity that she missed.

 **Oh boy, I wonder how this will all end(if I ever finish it, that is)... This chapter was a real bitch to finish and I have another story to write for a different fandom so idk whether this fanfic will have a conclusive ending or not.**


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